Game data

Where the graphics come from, how they are extracted, and what the editor does without them.

A map file holds numbers: a tile id per cell, a unit type per placed unit. The pictures those numbers refer to are in StarCraft's own archives, StarDat.mpq and BrooDat.mpq. That is Blizzard's data, not covered by this project's MIT license and not redistributable, so none of it ships with the editor. The editor gets it from a copy of the game you are entitled to use, extracts what it needs once, and keeps the result.

This document is for anyone who wants to know where the graphics come from, what is kept where, how a mod's files can be used in place of the game's, and how the pictures are drawn. The installing guide covers the first-run dialog itself; building the editor from source, which needs the same files on disk, is in Extracting for a source build.

Attribution is not permission. Before publishing a fork or hosting a build, read ATTRIBUTION.md.

• What the editor needsThe editor needs two archives from a classic (1.16) installation, StarDat.mpq and BrooDat.mpq.
• Where it looksThe editor settles on one source of game data when it starts, in this order:
• Getting the filesHelp ▸ Game Data… shows the current source and, when there is none, the two ways to get one.
• Data setsThe editor draws from one set of game files at a time, and a *data set* names one.
• Testing a map in the gameTools ▸ Test Map needs the installed game rather than its data.
• Extracting for a source buildA clone has no game data until it is extracted.
• How terrain is drawnEach tileset is five files.
• How units are drawnA unit type leads to its picture through four tables:
• In the sourceFor developers.